paixaorpg | Wait For Me [Active]

Entry tags:

Wait For Me [Active]

Character(s): Luke fon Fabre and Tear Grants
Content: Luke reunites with Tear \o/
Setting: Around L7
Time: Afternoon?
Warnings: ~~My sucky titles.~~ None!

Luke had no intentions of making Tear wait any longer than she had to. She'd already been waiting long enough for him, after all. Of course, this was definitely not how he'd ever dreamed his reunion with her or any of the others would have been. He would have liked to have been home on Auldrant. That's how it should have been, but he wasn't really complaining as such. It definitely wasn't good, however, that more of them were getting trapped here. But they'd all find a way to get home, right?

He didn't want to yet believe that his fonons would come apart if he returned to Auldrant like Natalia thought. He didn't understand where she was getting that from, but it did make him worry a little. What if his fonon separation stopping did have something to do with no longer being on Auldrant? Then again, he wasn't sure how that would make sense...

Shaking the thoughts away, he set his mind to getting to Tear. Now wasn't the time for worrying about that stuff. They didn't even know HOW to get home yet, after all. Or if they even really could too, as much as he hated to consider that.

Slowly down to check the map, he confirmed he was almost at the right kind of area. He'd been to Joutenheim gate before, heck that's where... Ivan (wasn't that the boy's name? It felt so long ago... What happened to him anyways?) had showed him how to use the map, so Luke knew where he was going.

Shoving it back in his pants pocket, he picked his pace up. He had to be close now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tear had found a vacant bench not far from a café that seemed to be popular with the city's residents. To the casual on-looker Tear might have appeared to be watching them, but in reality she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to any of the strangers.

It was difficult not to be actively doing something right now, but all in all it had probably been for the best to remain in one place, otherwise she and Luke might have passed one another and continued to wander. The waiting part wasn't problematic, really. Tear was more concerned about what she was going to say when Luke found her. It had been a year since she had seen him, and despite having kept herself busy during the months that followed, the events on Eldrant and her words back then, still weighed heavily on her conscience.

Then hadn't been the time, and she had almost realized it too late. Luke had finally made up his mind about what he had to do, and that decision had been necessary. Luke's resolve was what had stopped her from saying something selfish.

Now wasn't the time to dredge up the past either, she decided. The important thing was gathering everyone together and assessing the situation. Tear had yet to learn much about Paixao, and what little she did know failed to sit well with her. Hopefully Luke had managed to find out something about the place since his arrival, and then there were Asch and Natalia, and as she had discovered only moments earlier - Anise. They had to find a way back to Auldrant somehow - all of them. Together.

It was around this time that Tear heard hurried footsteps closing in.

It wasn't hard to eventually spot her, sitting there on a bench. Both of them really stuck out amongst the townsfolk, although Luke probably did even more so.

"Tear!"

Luke hurried towards her, focused entirely on getting to her and only just managing to dodge around the townsfolk. Finally, he came to an awkward stop a yard or two from her. Bending over, he rested his hands on his knees, as he tried to catch his breath. He'd run most of the way and was definitely feeling it now.

"T-Tear!" he managed, between breaths, not being able to wrap his mind yet around anything more intelligent. But it was her! It was really, really her.

The minute Tear heard her name she was alert and on her feet. Her eyes swept the cobblestone street until she spotted the familiar figure approaching.

Well, Tear had been planning to take this calmly enough, but it was another matter entirely having a redhead barreling through a crowd towards you. Luckily he managed not to bump into anyone, and it was also a good thing that none of the people were paying much mind to this scene as it unfolded.

It was one thing for an acquaintance to tell you that your comrade was alive, another completely to see it for yourself. She allowed herself to relax a little. Luke was all right. He was really all right. Except that he was gasping for air, of course.

The first few steps were a bit hesitant, but Tear closed the distance, stopping to stand a few feet away from him.

"You idiot... You didn't run the entire way, did you?" He was always doing that - rushing into things. Even when he stopped to think about the matters at hand, he still rushed into them.

It was silly, but she almost felt like crying. Maybe she was crying, she didn't know for sure.

Slowly he straightened still breathing deeply for a few more breaths, as he rubbed the back of his neck with a bit of a sheepish laugh.

"Well, I said I wouldn't keep you waiting long," Luke replied. He had run most of the way, because he really didn't want to keep her waiting and he couldn't have possibly walked the whole way.

Lowering his arm, his grin softened to a sober smile, as he looked her over, emotion at seeing her again starting to well up. She... really hadn't changed at all. Had it been as long for her as it had been for him? He supposed he should ask, but he couldn't bring himself to bring it up yet. He wasn't sure what even to say now, in fact, though he felt he should say something.

"T-Tear..."

That's all he managed to force out at this point.

Edited 2010-02-02 03:01 (UTC)

Even so, hadn't she told him that she'd wait? Always, she had said. What did a few extra hours matter as long as Luke came home? Granted, this place definitely wasn't home, but she decided she could overlook this fact if it meant he wouldn't disappear again. He wouldn't disappear once they returned to Auldrant, would he? The impossible had happened before, she told herself. She'd just have to believe that it could continue to happen.

"And I said that I would wait for you," she reminded him, although her voice was hardly audible. It was good to hear his voice again, to see that smile. It reminded Tear just how much it had meant to travel with and befriend Luke and the others. She hadn't expected to care about any of them so much. Though she was doing her best to restrain them, the melodist could feel moisture beginning to brim in her eyes. She didn't particularly want anyone to see her crying, not even Luke, but she couldn't bring herself to look away, either.

Tear delved around in her mind for something to say, seeing as Luke seemed to be having similar difficulty himself.

"Luke..." She paused, attempting to form a question.

"How... how long have you been here? Since when?" Tear wasn't inquiring as to how long, per se. He'd said he'd been there for at least a month, but she couldn't bring herself to ask when he had left Auldrant straight-out.

Edited 2010-02-02 04:43 (UTC)

Seeing the tears in her eyes made a lump start to form in his throat. Part of him wanted to step closer, touch her shoulder to confirm it really was her standing there in front of him, but something still kept him rooted in place, his gaze locked, almost awkwardly, with hers. He knew she didn't like him seeing her cry, but he couldn't seem to look away any more than she could.

"O-over a month now," Luke answered, after attempting to swallow the lump. A month in Auldrant terms, of course. From what he could make out, the calendar here was completely different. He'd had no reason to try to 'convert' at this point. Not to mention it would probably just confuse him.

"Since I... freed Lorelei," he continued, his gaze finally averting as he rubbed the side of his head. "That's the last thing I really remember..."

Tear was finally managing to get her mind in proper working order. So Luke must have only been in Paixao since Lorelei returned to the fonbelt, although that did leave quite a large discrepancy in time. Perhaps time didn't matter when you were dealing with other worlds. Well then. As someone who had knowledge of the year following Van's death, it was her job to inform him about what had occurred since then. She wasn't sure how much the others knew. It was possible that someone had already explained the current state of the world to him, since Natalia and Asch (and apparently Anise) were here. It would at least give her something coherent to say when she was still having a great amount of difficulty guiding a conversation. A few stray tears glided down her cheeks, but she was otherwise managing to restrain herself. More or less.

"That occurred a year ago," she explained. "From what I understand, Guy and the Colonel returned to Malkuth, Natalia to Baticul, Anise to Daath, and Mieu to the Cheagle Woods. I've visited both Anise and Mieu since then, but all that I've heard concerning the others comes from secondary sources. The Order has assigned me with chronicling everything that's happened, seeing as they've been unable to locate a reliable account written during that time."

Though one existed.

Tear cast her eyes down towards the ground, bringing a hand up to rest across her heart. "To be honest, the Order's a complete mess. Everyone seems to be slowly moving forward without the Score to guide them, however, there's still a considerable amount of work to do before things can even begin to run smoothly."

Here she was crying and yet she was talking about the state of Auldrant and the Order of all things.

"Well, we knew things were going to take time, right?" he replied, though it wasn't something that he really had on his mind. He needed to get home before first before worrying about everything else being home entailed. It was his friends, his friends who were now popping up here, who he really was more concerned with.

Finally, not being able to just stand there any longer, Luke took a last step forward and gently lay his hand on Tear's shoulder, trying to offer some measure of comfort.

"Tear... I... I'm sure you've been doing a great job," he said, after a brief pause. He just wasn't sure what to say. While there was no lack of things he would like to say to her, what he really could and should say were two totally different things. It was quickly becoming even more not the reunion he ever had pictured, but things never went that way, did they?

((ooc: Sorry for the belatedness and fail. ;_; Luke-muse wasn't cooperating.))

[[OOC: It's okay, my Tear muse doesn't always cooperate either.]]

Auldrant and the Order at least made sense. More sense than this place, and more sense than her breaking down into tears. They were things she could easily understand and explain.

"Yes, we knew that," she agreed, "and I don't expect that anyone is going to simply give up, not after everything that's happened."

A couple of years ago she would have shrugged him off, but now she didn't even pull away when Luke touched her shoulder except to raise her head again so that she was actually looking at him and not the cobblestones beneath her feet. It served to reconfirm that she wasn't just dreaming.

"...what? Oh. I suppose so." To be honest, Tear's records were both accurate and incredibly dull, but it wasn't as if she could write her own thoughts and feelings into a historical account anyway.

Tear trusted Luke, but there was something about him that seemed decidedly troubled. It was natural enough, she supposed, given the recent turn of events, but it bothered her nevertheless.

"What's wrong? You look worried."

"Uh, well, I," Luke spluttered, as he struggled to figure out how to respond, but finding himself even more tongue-tied than before. The fact she was looking at him now somehow made it even harder. He could still see the dampness of her tears on her cheeks. Once again he diverted his gaze to the side, lifting his hand away from her shoulder. From there it found it's way back to his neck, rubbing nervously.

"Well, you..." he tried again, trying to calm down a bit and form some sort of reply, in spite of the difficulty.

"You're crying," Luke finally mumbled softly. Okay, that wasn't exactly the main cause of the worried expression that had apparently formed on his face, but it definitely didn't not have something to do with it, either.

"I'm not crying," Tear insisted, averting her gaze momentarily. It was painfully obvious that she had been doing that very thing, however. She knew it, too, and the way her face flushed proved that she was perfectly aware of the fact.

"A-and even if I was, it would be no cause for concern."

She fell silent again, chancing a glance or two around them. They didn't particularly seem to have an audience - that was a relief.

"I spoke with Anise while I was waiting here for you. She's supposed to be checking her location, though I'm not sure where that is yet. It might be a good idea if we all met up; Anise doesn't seem to have been in Paixao any longer than I have, and we still don't know much about this place."

Another pause. Tear shifted her weight from one foot to the other, contemplating.

Then quietly, "I... I missed you." There. She had said it.

Except that she was or had been rather and it would always be cause for concern, whether she liked it or not. He couldn't help it.

"Anise? Anise is here too?" Luke hadn't yet checked his journal so hadn't seen that. "Then... yeah. Maybe we should..."

He began to dig in his pocket, to pull out his journal but paused, glancing back to Tear as he heard her quiet words. Leaving the journal where it was, Luke blinked at her a moment, before smiling a little and looking downwards.

"Tear... I... missed you too," he admitted softly.

((*stabs her fail in the face... and arghs at how timing is so seriously screwed up XD; lmao oh well...* Apparently in thread between Anise and Natalia, Natalia brought her to the apartments (see Luke's journal) so I guess Luke can just bring Tear back there instead or. Something. lol. XD;))

[[OOC: Sorry about that. D: Tear got contacted by Anise right after she spoke to Luke, so that's why I mentioned it - I assumed she and Anise would have communicated back and forth while she was waiting for Luke. IDK man just go with your gut instinct. I think it's all kinda happening at the same time, though, thanks to the "Abyss Explosion". I think it'll be less confusing once everyone meets at least once and does the "oh hi, how ya doing?" deal. XD I'm not picky. And if you ever want me to go back and edit things, I totally can.]]

The melodist could have solved the problem quite easily by explaining why she had been crying to begin with, but Luke hadn't asked and this course of action escaped her completely. She did, however, finally attempt to clear them away with a gloved hand - all the while trying to give off the appearance that this was perfectly normal.

"Apparently so. I was actually visiting with Anise and Florian in Daath before I came here. I'm not certain if she arrived from the same point in time or not, but she seemed to know who Florian was at the least."

Tear had gone back to watching Luke as he fumbled around (presumably for his own journal), stopped. He still seemed distracted by something, but it didn't seem like she'd get the answers she wanted. If he decided to talk about it, she supposed that he would in his own time, and if he didn't, perhaps she'd manage to figure it out before it became a problem - Luke wasn't the most difficult person to read, after all.

At his words, a small smile crossed her face.

"So what do you plan on doing? It's starting to look as if we have yet another adventure ahead of us." Assuming he wanted to leave. Luke would be coming home with her, wouldn't he?

((ooc: Oh gah, don't worry about it! ♥ The abyss explosion did get us into a bit of a jumble. XD I figured he spoke to Jade and Anise in Jade's post (that the mun deleted ._.;) like some point during/after Tear here or... something. Meh. XD I'll just not think about it now, I think. |Da Anyhoo, YES. It should be less confusing after this for sure. XD I'm glad Guy-mun has been slow to get Guy. S'giving us a chance to breath. XD;))

"Heh, it does, doesn't it?" he replied in agreement. It was definitely turning into an adventure. However, he paused wondering exactly what she meant by 'what he planned on doing?' Natalia might think he shouldn't be trying to go home, but it wasn't a sentiment he shared in the least. There was only one thing he'd been planning to do since he arrived here.

"What do you mean, what do I plan to do, Tear?" Luke asked her, tilting his head slightly, as he looked at her. "I mean, isn't kind of obvious?"

His voice softened as he met her gaze once more. "I made a promise, right?"

Edited 2010-02-14 03:55 (UTC)

Tear nodded, less with her head and more with her eyes.

It really was. Somehow she felt the journey ahead of her might be a considerably long one. She wasn't sure she minded, though, especially if it was a task she could complete in the company of her friends.

Tear had had no way of knowing if Luke still intended to go home or not. The residents were strange, but she supposed Paixao did possess some variety of charm. That, and a small voice in the back of her mind was still worried that he might disappear once he got back to Auldrant.

"Yes, you did," she replied, commanding herself to get her emotions in check. Smiling was acceptable, but she couldn't allow herself to start crying again.

"However, you haven't done much in the way of explaining, so I wouldn't necessarily call it obvious. For all I know you might have changed your mind since you arrived here."

He might have, but Tear was quite sure that, even if he had, he'd still have kept his promise somehow.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck again at this point. He'd thought it was obvious, but... well anyways. "Sorry about that..." he replied before giving her a smile again.

"Nothing could change my mind. ...Although Natalia is sure trying to," Luke continued, with a slight sigh. She'd been pressuring him to consider staying here, since she seemed to have the idea in her head that Luke was going to die if he returned to Auldrant. While he didn't know what would happen, there was nothing to say he would, as far as he could tell. His fonons seemed to be holding together fine now, after all. At least, he sure felt like they were. He hadn't seen any of the signs he'd been seeing before Eldrant.

Either way, he'd vowed he wasn't going to give up and he was sticking with it.

"But I'm not giving up on returning home."

Luke once again now dug for his journal, pulling out and fumbling with it a moment to turn it on right, so they could find out where Anise was.

"Natalia is...?" the melodist murmured quietly. After a moment or two of thought, Tear came to the conclusion that the princess was likely suffering the same sorts of fears as she was.

Natalia, like Tear, had lost a great deal during their journey - perhaps even more. However, unlike Tear, Natalia was quite open with her feelings and didn't hide them behind a soldier's facade. She hoped the other young woman was fairing well.

It sounded as if Luke had made up his mind, and Tear doubted than anyone or anything would change it. She'd respect that decision, and felt reassured.

However, this left her at something of a loss for words. Tear stood there, her hands clasped behind her back as she waited for Luke to contact Anise. There was a great deal that she needed to see to - a place to stay was a major priority, as well as food. She also lacked particularly useful information about the city, and then there was the process of finding a way back... finding a way back for a whole party. It was vaguely troubling, but not, she thought, impossible.

It took a few minutes, but as Tear probably caught on, given Luke was using the voice posting feature, it sounded like Natalia had found Anise and they were at the apartment already.

"Well, I guess we should just head there then," Luke said, looking back to Tear, after he'd tucked his journal away again. Anise had offered to meet them, but since she was there, it made little sense for her to come to them.

Tear had been listening. She had spoken with Anise already, but this was the first time she had heard Natalia's voice in a considerable while. It was really happening... so many of her friends, and they were all coming together again. That had been her hope, although one she had confided solely to Mieu - a hope the cheagle seemed to share. Tear's only regret was that this congregation hadn't come on their own terms, and for that reason, she couldn't voice it now.

"Yes, let's. It sounds as if Anise is doing well. We shouldn't keep the others waiting for too long."

The melodist stooped to retrieve her staff and took a few steps closer to her comrade, "Shall we be going?"

"Heh, yeah, it does," he replied, agreeing with her assessment of Anise's well being. Anise had certainly seemed her usual self. Anise had seemed eager to come meet them, but it really would have been kinda pointless for her to drag everyone out here just to walk back to the apartment. And he didn't exactly mind having a little more time alone with Tear either.

Waiting for Tear to grab her staff, Luke gave her an affirmative nod to her question. "Let's go."

Keeping pace with Luke wasn't difficult. Tear walked along beside him in silence at first. The initial shock had worn off by now, and she was simply grateful to be in the company of someone so familiar; the melodist likely would have accompanied him to anywhere. Still, it hadn't escaped her that she still had very little knowledge of this place, the apartments they were heading towards (judging from the conversation she had just overheard), or how Luke and the others had been fairing in this strange place.

"These 'Iriela Apartments'. Could you possibly tell me more about them?"

[[OOC: Just let me know when you start getting bored and/or wanna cut off. I can never tell. |D]]

It felt still a little surreal to walk down the Paixao streets with Tear by his side, but he wasn't exactly complaining. He almost felt a little guilty for the happy feeling that was filling him as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Well, uh..." Luke began, trying to figure out just what could be said about them. They weren't exactly anything special. "Natalia was the one who found the place."

He paused a moment trying to figure out if there was anything else to say, and... really couldn't think of anything much. "That's... really all there is to it," he said, with an awkward laugh. "It's just a building. There's some other people living there too, but we haven't really talked to them."

((hehee... okie dokie. |D Yeah, I'm never sure either. I guess need to try to put together a thread with everyone. And aww that icon *A*))

Surreal didn't even begin to describe it. Tear had to stop herself from continuously checking to make sure Luke was still there. (He always was.) In the meantime, she should concentrate her efforts on getting everyone back home. It would no doubt take a while to do, but if things went well, she'd eventually get an opportunity to deal with more personal matters.

"I see..." The condition of the apartments didn't concern her a great deal, but if Natalia had chosen them, Tear automatically got the impression that they would be relatively fancy and... expensive. (How could she know that her assumptions were inaccurate?)

"What about the people in charge? I'm assuming Paixao has a mayor or some other figure of authority." The Locrian Sergeant felt very out of her element. On Auldrant at least she had some idea of how things worked. Here, she didn't, and it left her struggling a bit to find a lead, a starting point, something she could research and follow.

"I've also heard there's no transportation out of the city. I doubt that means there's no way out of it; however, even if we were to leave Paixao, if this world really is separate from Auldrant, we wouldn't have made any progress at all. Theoretically, if one were pulled in, they should be able to exit in a similar fashion - perhaps through some kind of a portal." The Yulia Road came to mind - a fonic glyph. Well, there had to be a way, didn't there? Otherwise Paixao would have become overpopulated at some point and unable to support itself.

[[OOC: My policy is usually that I'll keep responding until the other person gets tired or I run out of things to say myself. |D

Isn't it? I'm trying to add icons of Tear + other people.]]

"Well, I think they did have a mayor, but they don't seem to any more, from what I've heard," Luke explained, relaying what little he did know about the situation. Things were.. really confusing around here. There were probably a lot more people here who could give her better answers than he could.

"And it might actually not even be a real city at all, according to what a lot of people who've been brought here have been saying," he began, knowing how unbelievable what he was about to explain was. People seemed to be taking it seriously and there was that place him and Natalia had visited. He had no explanation for it. It really didn't seem like it was the same place at all. It was really weird. "It doesn't make any sense, but they say the city is somehow inside a castle. Which is pretty impossible, but... There's this building outside the city and inside is a door and it seems to lead to a completely different place."

Tear was probably going to think he had lost it in his short time here, at this rate. He had trouble believing it himself, after all.

"Natalia and I both saw it," Luke added quickly.

((ooc: Sounds like a good policy to me. XDb I usually go with that or if we hit a really suitable note to end on. Whichever comes first. lol

Nice! :D I need to work on rearranging a few of Luke's icons... especially with a new empty space hoho *A*))

Edited 2010-02-27 11:01 (UTC)

"It may be reasonable to assume that the mayor's term ended, or perhaps he fell out of favor and was removed from office. Still, in any society one would expect there to be something at its head to maintain order or create rules - a government, a religion. Something. Whatever that is, it's likely that there are people at the top who know what's going on, just as higher ups within the Order had access to privileged information that the rest of us were not."

Tear fell silent again as she listened to Luke speak about the possible nature of Paixao. It did sound rather far-fetched, to be honest. She turned to look squarely at him when Luke claimed to have seen this other location firsthand. Tear didn't seem particularly skeptical - she appeared to be taking him seriously. Of course, even Luke could make mistakes, but after watching someone trying to change himself (and succeeding) for as long as she had, you tended to give that person the benefit of a doubt.

"A city inside a castle, and a door leading to a completely different place," she repeated.

"I suppose it's possible. You wouldn't have believed me if I had tried to describe the Qliphoth to you before you fell in, right? I didn't completely trust that the Outer Lands existed when Van first told me about them, either. In a way, it's the same. But I'm wondering: speaking in theory, is this 'different place' another 'room' inside the castle, or is it located outside?"

Edited 2010-03-01 01:23 (UTC)

Luke nodded to Tear in agreement. It seemed very likely there was someone 'higher' up who knew what was going on. Whether the Mayor who'd been in office had or not, Luke had no idea. Maybe it had to do with that Organization people were often talking about...

He'd never thought about it, but now that Tear mentioned it, she was right. Luke never dreamed a place like the Qliphoth could exist. The idea that the world's crust was being held up sounded pretty far fetched. This really wasn't so different, was it? Maybe it could be possible...

"You're right, Tear. Maybe it is kind of like that. And, well, people have been calling the other place another floor, which does make some kind of sense, I guess. There was a hallway and stairs between the two places," Luke replied.

Another floor? If that was the case, then how many floors could there be?

"Often people will observe more about their surroundings than they realize. Even seemingly meaningless details can be important," Tear murmured. This was, after all, her job - gathering information, finding things out. Sometimes small but vital clues came to light after engaging in conversations with people - these points were rarely presented right away, mostly because at first glance they seemed unimportant.

"That's not to say that everything you've heard is true, but since you've witnessed at least several of these things for yourself, it certainly seems a possibility."

And she'd yet to hear an alternative.

"Besides. The truth isn't always logical."

"That definitely seems to be the case here," Luke said, with a sigh. It was confusing and seemed impossible, yet it did seem to be true, despite how little sense it all made.

"There's a lot of other things here that seem... weird," he continued, leaning a little closer to Tear, as he glanced at some passing blond haired citizens out of the corner of his eye, as he lowered his voice. "The people living here are kind of strange, as you've probably already noticed, though it's kinda hard to say how exactly."

They seemed normal enough at first glance, but when you tried to talk to them or just watched them, they just seemed so... uninteresting. There was a lack of life to them, despite being alive. It was really hard to describe. And, of course, the fact they were all blond and blue-eyed was pretty creepy too.

((ooc: ......I. Fail. DX A bazillion apologies for late reply being so late.))

Tear glanced from Luke - who for all purposes seemed to be trying to be discreet - to the citizens themselves, and after a while of looking straight ahead at where they were going, she began speaking again.

"I'd noticed," she replied, keeping her voice down. "If I didn't know any better, just by observing them I'd say they were drones of some sort. Either under some form of hypnosis or brainwashing... or created to carry out a particular purpose. Stand ins, perhaps. They give off the appearance of the city being inhabited, but they seem..."

Tear cut herself off. She hated to say it, especially in front of someone who was worried that he might be similar to what she was currently witnessing. She didn't say it, but she was thinking it.

They seem empty.

"I don't know that we will get any useful information from them."

"Trust me, you won't," Luke replied, with a faint laugh. He'd tried that a few times, and quickly had learned not to bother. "Except those fontech things. They're obsessed."

He wasn't even joking. Ever since Ivan had showed him a few things, any other assistance he had found he could easily get out of them. They were all too eager to help him. It was just another one of those weird things about them.

Of course, maybe the people really were just this... weird. It was meant to be some different world, right? The whole thing was confusing and weird. A different universe. Maybe even a different planet? It was just hard to wrap the mind around.

"But, yeah, you ask them about a castle or floors or anything, and they just look at you weird. It's the people like us, from other places, that seem to know stuff."

Edited 2010-03-17 19:55 (UTC)

Tear allowed herself to be amused for a split second. "It certainly seems that way."

And then she returned to hypothesizing.

"Have you ever tried asking one of those people where or how the 'fontech' was acquired? At the very least the machines are likely convenient to those who know how to use them properly. Once a person becomes dependent on something, that dependency can potentially grow into an obsession. Perhaps they've come to rely on the technology too much - it's just a theory. In any case, I don't think we'll figure out the answers by continuing to discuss things we don't completely understand. It'll probably require asking the right people, and perhaps even moreso, asking the right questions."

Tear had decided that she'd likely heard the gist of what Luke knew. The facts weren't completely satisfying, but they were a start. Besides, who'd want to keep talking about it when you were already wandering down the streets of some completely foreign city. It wasn't as if she could forget that, even though she was letting the subject drop.

"...I can't believe you ran."

"Uh, no, I haven't asked anything like that," Luke admitted, a little bit sheepishly. It had never occurred to him to ask them about the journals themselves. Of course, it was a good idea. He only wished he'd though of it. "Yeeeah, I think you'll be better at that than me."

He'd never thought of even half of that stuff himself. Clearly investigation was not his forte. He would be happy to leave the questioning of the citizens to Tear.

At this point, Luke really didn't mind Tear dropping the subject, although was he was definitely more than slightly amused at what she changed the subject to.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do? I don't think I could have walked even if I'd tried." Walking would have just taken too long.

Edited 2010-03-20 09:46 (UTC)

Clearly.

Tear nodded slowly. "Right. I suppose I can take care of gathering information." Or trying to. Tear couldn't even begin to predict how difficult it might be to fish up useful facts from the people residing in the city. Though the strange behavior of the blond-haired citizens was puzzling, what Tear really wanted to know more about was the structure of this "castle" and how to move from "floor" to "floor" within it. If they were indeed in a castle. She reminded herself once again that anything was possible, and that she should know that by now.

Honestly, Tear couldn't have thought of much else. There was little to say of Auldrant that she hadn't already, they'd already talked a little about Natalia, and the others didn't seem to have been in Paixao for very long. Not to mention she had spent the past (how long?) prodding Luke for details about the city. That only really left one person.

"Taken the train like any sensible person would have. If you had come across trouble after running all the way here, what would you have done then?" It didn't sound quite like a lecture.

Edited 2010-03-20 21:10 (UTC)

The train. Yeah, okay, maybe he could have taken it, in hindsight, but even that would have been aggravatingly slow. Of course, he hadn't even thought of it at the time, but that wasn't really the point here. It would have been more frustrating than just walking. Of course, it's not that Luke ran the ENTIRE way. He had to slow down, but... Why was he even thinking about this?

"But I didn't and I'm here now," Luke pointed out. It really was a bit too late to talk about what he should have done, not to mention kind of silly.

"And everything is fine... right?" he added, glancing to her questioningly.

Obviously Tear was being paranoid. She gave herself another mental shake - hard. Certainly she had not prepared herself for any of this, but it was too late now. Life didn't normally decide to be convenient and hand out instruction manuals.

"Although I guess it depends on your viewpoint, we don't seem to be in any immediate danger. If you mean earlier, it's... not what you think."

Not that she had any way of knowing that.

"We're okay," she confirmed, trying to sound as reassuring as possible, "It's just a great deal to take in for such a short amount of time. I suppose I'm still feeling a bit... disoriented."

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